By Henri J. M. Nouwen

This touching observation is central to the probing spiritual journal of Henri Nouwen recorded during his seven-month stay in a Trappist monastery. During this period, he had a unique opportunity to explore crucial issues of the spiritual life and discover "a quiet stream underneath the fluctuating affirmations and rejections of my little world." Nouwen participated fully in the daily life and routine of the Abbey of the Genesee in upstate New York-in work and in prayer. He relates here the typical human experiences and questions that had somehow disallowed Christ to be the center of his existence. From the early weeks in the abbey dominated by conflicting desires and concerns to the final days of Advent, when he has found a new sense of calm expectation, Nouwen never loses his critical honesty. Insightful, compassionate, often humorous, always realistic, The Genesee Diary is both an inspiration and a challenge to those who are in search of themselves.

• Binding: Paperback
  Pages: 224

Henri J.M. Nouwen was a Catholic priest who taught at several theological institutes and universities in his home country of the Netherlands and in the United States. He shared the final years of his life with people with mental and physical disabilities at the L'Arche Daybreak Community in Torronto, Canada. He died in 1996. He authored many books on the spiritual life,including Reaching Out, The Wounded Healer, and The Return of the Prodial Son.